5 Things You Need to Know About the 2014 FIFA World Cup

So you don’t miss a second of the action

The last time the World Cup was held in Brazil, the host nation advanced to what was the equivalent that year of a Final, witnessed by a ridiculous 173,850 fans jam packed into the Estádio do Maracanã, but were undone by goals from Juan Alberto Schiaffino and Alcides Ghiggia as Uruguay emerged triumphant 2-1. A Uruguay side led this year by the enigmatic strike pairing of Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani will hope that the omens are positive for a repeat performance this time around.

If that’s done enough to whet your appetite, read on:

1. The schedule:
The FIFA World Cup kicks off on the 12th of June 2014 and lasts just over a month with the Final scheduled for the 13th of July. The first two weeks have multiple matches on each day, with the exception of the opening day where Brazil vs Croatia is the only game after the opening ceremony. Most days have three matches a day, but there are five days when there are as many as four matches to ensure that thousands around the globe turn up late for work!

From an Indian fans’ perspective, it is heartening to learn that there is a match at 9:30pm on virtually every day, with the second match of the day at 00:30am on most days. It’s the third match which will really test how much you love your football, with the kick-offs scheduled for 3:30am!

A detailed schedule is available here. Don’t bother downloading the pdf version though, it is an absolute nightmare to look at, and you’ll just be better off coming back to this page for your daily schedule.

2. Must-watch matches:
Choosing a handful of matches to earmark as ‘must-see’ in the Group Stage of the FIFA World Cup is no easy task, but if a gun were put to my head, these would top the list.

3. Hard to pick a winner
What perhaps makes this World Cup the most exciting in recent memory is that it is so hard to pick a winner; there isn’t one outright favourite to win. The bookmakers have handed that tag to the hosts, Brazil. But let’s face it, Neymar & Co. aren’t inspiring all that much confidence in their ability to beat the top sides. Similarly, Lionel Messi has been a major disappointment at the international level and despite the plethora of attacking talent that Argentina possesses; they just don’t seem to have enough quality in the rest of the park. Defending champions Spain look like an ageing squad, leaving Germany as my personal picks for the tournament, but even they look like a side that could be beaten by one of the other top teams.

4. Records
As always there will be some records under threat at the 2014 FIFA World Cup and here are a few that you should be aware of to ensure you don’t find yourself at the embarrassing end of a conversation.

a) Hosts and winners: Brazil are chasing their 6th World Cup win, while Italy are hoping to pick up their 5th and join Brazil at the top of the pile. Germany (3), Uruguay (2) and Argentina (2) are the only other teams to win the World Cup more than once!

b) Goals Scored: As a team Brazil have scored the most goals, 210 to be exact, of which the ‘original Ronaldo’ contributed 15, which is the highest ever in the World Cup Finals. However, the highest ever scored in one particular tournament was an amazing 13 by Just Fontaine (yes that’s his name) of France in 1958, a record that is never likely to be broken.

One other record that continues to be chased from that 1958 World Cup is that of the youngest ever goal scorer in the history of the tournament, a record which still belongs to the legendary Pele, who scored when he was 17 years and 239 days old. That was in a match against Wales, 5 days later the Brazilian teenager bagged a hat-trick against France!

5. Could this be the last one that matters?
A genuine fear which should be gripping football fans the world over that perhaps hasn’t quite sunk in is that this could well be the last World Cup that matters. The 2018 World Cup is scheduled to take place in Russia, and given the political turmoil that is taking place in that part of the world, one can only fathom what participation will be like when it is Russia’s turn to play host 4 years down the line. With the World Cup immediately following that in Qatar already coming in for massive criticism, there is a very valid chance that national glory may well take a back seat to the already massive amounts of money that exist in club football and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil may well turn out to be the last one that really matters!